"The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievements, but moral acts: to return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say, "I was wrong." - Sydney J. Harris

6/29/2006

Atlas Shrugged

So I finished reading this book finally. It took me about three weeks, which is really long for me. I liked the book. I even agree with most of it, specifically that people need to take responsibility for their own lives, and not rely on the government to give them what they think they need. However, the book ignores an equally important characteristic that I think is essential to be a happy and successful (not the monetary sense) human, and that is the need to help other people. Like it or not, there are people out there who no matter how hard they try and how brilliant they are will not be able to rise above the hand that life dealt them without the help of people more fortunate. The Atlas Shrugged answer of leaving them to rot is not right. I happen to think that taxes are not the right answer either because so much of it is not directed to help the people that need it, and a great deal of the money that is directed to help the poor and unfortunate is sucked up in administrative costs and the huge bureaucracy. People need to help of their own volition in order to make any positive difference in other people's lives.